ABSTRACT
This chapter speculates on the place of crime within global themes of change. It proposes an examination of dichotomous development themes such as globalization through the representation of difference, and its employment in setting social control agendas. In examining the relationship between globalization, crime and transitional cultures, the uneven nature of globalization is revealed, particularly as a motivation for selective socio-economic development. The secularism of globalization and its attendant distortions of democracy have led to a world where terrorism is the great threat, and world war is now another method of crime control. Today globalization is largely an economic paradigm, meaning modernization and the marketing of predominant consumerist values. Common themes for crime and globalization are commodification and profit. The commodification of the globe and the pre-eminence of the marketplace have made profit the global ethic. The marketplace is an essential context for modernization and the version of culture it promotes.
